WORK has started on Rose Hill’s new community centre after 11 months of delays.

Construction of the centre, which will cost £4.7m, was meant to begin in January but was delayed after residents proposed changes to its design and facilities.

The start date was put back again in July after the new plans came in almost half a million pounds over budget.

In September council bosses approved an extra £487,000 to be spent on the project and work started last Friday with a ground breaking ceremony at the site in Ashurst Way.

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It is expected the new centre, which will contain a gym, sports changing rooms, a GP’s surgery and new facilities for Rose Hill Social Club and Rose Hill Community Association, will be open by the end of 2015.

The symbolic first turf was cut by Rose Hill resident Bill Buckingham, a former Lord Mayor of Oxford.

Oxford City councillor for Rose Hill and Iffley Ed Turner said: “It is excellent that work is getting underway, and there is nobody better placed to be cutting the first sod than Bill Buckingham, who has dedicated all his adult life to serving our community.

“This will be a great facility, well worth every penny of the multi-million pound cost, and I can’t wait for it to be finished.”

Mayors and top civic representatives from four of Oxford’s twin cities who were in Oxford to mark Remembrance Sunday on November 9 were present at the ceremony.

The representatives, from Bonn in Germany, Grenoble in France, Perm in Russia and the Dutch city of Leiden, learned about community work in Oxford and the plans for the new centre. There was also a fun day for Rose Hill residents, with sports activities, face painting, a balloon artist and refreshments.

Oxford City Council board member for communities Christine Simm said: “I am delighted that work is underway to provide a wonderful new community centre for Rose Hill.”

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